


from my lethal blow

by Pomfry



Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Hades-Persephone Fusion, Light Angst, No Romance, Only Family - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-09 04:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry
Summary: "Tetsu!" calls Misono, and Hugh looks over just in time to see a tall man blink up from his drink of nectar.Hugh stares. Tetsu is the name of the new god of spring - his sister's prodigy. In Hugh's esteemed opinion, he looks like he should be a god of the river or ocean. He certainly has the appearance of one who swims in the water as easy as breathing; blonde hair, blue eyes, a figure built for cutting through the current. Certainly, not a god of spring.(In which Tetsu is Persephone, Hugh is Hades, and absolutely zero romance happens between the two, but familydoes.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Asphodel Fields](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8941546) by [orangescribbles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangescribbles/pseuds/orangescribbles). 



> beeen working on this for a while now. it's about 9k and would be longer if i actually worked on it once in a while. I'll be posting this sporatically, when I feel like it - which will be often tbh - but other than that, enjoy!

Parties are always boring, even with Mahiru tormenting Kuro into actually doing diplomatic relations. Kuro, forever lazy, sighs and reluctantly does so, not wanting to upset the one who makes his meals.  
  
Hugh laughs softly behind the rim of his cup, adjusting his crown. Kuro being manhandled by the god of the hearth is hilarious to watch, especially when he knows that his brother is head over heels for him.  
  
"Silly, aren't they?" asks Lily, arms crossed delicately over his chest as he watches the pair fondly. "It's painful to watch at times - I've never seen two people so oblivious."  
  
Hugh snickers, nodding. "I guess I'm lucky I got the Underworld."  
  
Lily smiles. "Kuro didn't want the work involved."  
  
"That he didn't," Hugh agrees, and snorts. The only big productive thing Kuro's ever done is kill Father - and even then he was never over it until Mahiru came into his life and beat him around the head. Lawless never really forgave him, though. He adored Father, for whatever reason; Mahiru fixed that too with a single minded determination once he saw just how messed up their family was. It's cute, really.  
  
"Lily!"  
  
Lily hums and looks over to see Misono, scowling as he tries to escape his sibling's grasp. Hugh has never been sure how Lily became friends with the god of the moon, but, well, it's happened.  
  
Lily smiles and waves back. Misono's face turns red and he kicks Mikuni in the face; Mikuni lets go, yelping in pain as Misono sprints to the relative safety of Mahiru.  
  
Kuro eyes him then slouches over with a groan. "Why are you here instead of with Lily?" he grouses. Misono glares at him.  
  
Hugh will never know how the mortals got to the idea that Misono was the son of Kuro. Kuro is too lazy to even leave Olympus, let alone woo someone on purpose.  
  
Then again, mortals are strange creatures. Hugh will never understand them, not even when he rules over them in their eternal rest.

"Tetsu!" calls Misono, and Hugh looks over just in time to see a tall man blink up from his drink of nectar.  
  
Hugh stares. Tetsu is the name of the new god of spring - his sister's prodigy. In Hugh's esteemed opinion, he looks like he should be a god of the river or ocean. He certainly has the appearance of one who swims in the water as easy as breathing; blonde hair, blue eyes, a figure built for cutting through the current. Certainly, not a god of spring.  
  
"Yes?" says Tetsu.  
  
"Stop Mikuni!"  
  
Tetsu shrugs and the vines curling around his legs shoot forward, grabbing Mikuni by the ankles and dragging him away. Hugh's grip tightens on his cup. That's an incredible amount of control for a new god, even one who has his sister a mentor. Mikuni taps the floor in surrender and the vines retreat, returning to twine around Tetsu's legs.  
  
Ah. So _that's_ the drawback. He can't not make it visible - there will forever be plants surrounding him. Hugh's sure he'll be a very powerful god - seasonal gods always are, and Tetsu seems to be particularly powerful.  
  
He'll be interesting to see, when he's fully grown into the power he has.  
  
Hugh settles into his seat, little legs swinging, and ignores the way Tetsu stares at him. After all, he's the god of the Underworld, of death and riches. Spring gods have no place next to him - he'd just kill him before he reaches his peak. It's happened before, to seasonal spirits. Weak ones that fluttered around him at dances, laughing as they drank, until they stopped dead.  
  
Hugh - always leaves, after that. Seasonal spirits are happy creatures, forever smiling and trying to bring fun with them. It's considered a great sin to kill even one.  
  
Hugh's killed so many that he's lost count.  
  
Nobody really talks to him at parties besides his siblings - despite his childish stature, he's well known for being dangerous, however unintentional it may be.  
  
Hugh purses his lips and wishes he was home. As good as it is to visit his siblings, the whispering behind his back is - troublesome. Besides, he has work he needs to do. Death waits for no one, not even him, and the dead are already starting to pile up.

Lily takes one look at his face and drags him over to the food table, chattering on about something or another - maybe a human couple being particularly romantic. He is the god of love, after all.

“So,” Lawless chitters, swinging in, picking Hugh up, and holding him under his arm. “What's going on in the Land of the Dead?”

Hugh smiles widely, hanging limply from his brother's grip. “I've been getting a lot of people who died from sickness,” he says, snagging a piece of ambrosia.

Lawless grins at that, the scarves waving madly behind him. “Why don't you ask our sister to stop the sickness in the crops?”

“She still hasn't picked a name yet?” Hugh groans, letting his head flop down.

“Nope,” Lawless says cheerfully. “After that apple farmer who called her who knows what for fifty years, she won't get a name other than The Mother.”

“Ugh.” Hugh takes a sip of nectar. “Besides, she can't do anything anyways. The sickness isn't in the crops. It's in the body and passed from spit.”

Lawless makes a noise of acknowledgement. “Ah. Well, have you heard of a new god of music or whatever?”

Hugh blinks, cheeks stuffed with ambrosia. A new god beyond the spring one?

Lawless grins a bit madly at his expression. “No? His name is Licht. He's interesting.”

 _Oh._ Hugh swallows the ambrosia. “That one. He's been around for fifty years now, right?”

Lawless waves a hand. “Yeah. He's still a baby. Can you believe he showed up in a king’s courtroom and immediately started trying to play an instrument?”

Hugh shakes his head slowly. “Gods that come into existence immediately do something that indicates what exactly their domain is. I'm not surprised he did.” He pauses, eyeing the malicious glee in Lawless’ eyes. “Are you going to mess with him?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

A nymph floats by, cheeks flushed with wine, and her hand strays too close to the crown on Hugh's head. His eyes widen. “Lawless,” he says, in a panic. Today's been going so _well -_

It's too late. Her fingers touch the crown and instantly crumble into dust.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> None of his siblings could have ruled, not without shattering or breaking the rules of death Thanatos would give them the moment they took the crown. They would have listened to the begging, the pleas of the dead, would have allowed the bad ones into the places meant for safety. They would have drowned in the despair that permeates the air, would have suffocated under the anguish that enters the lungs and refuses to leave. They would have bent to heartache, coughed in the desolation, died as their duty poisoned them from the mind out.

The Underworld is a quiet place. The screams of the damned are silenced by the wards outside, and the moaning from the Fields of Asphodel is the same.   
  
Hugh doesn't really like the suffering that's caused, but he can't help it. The souls who have done horrible things need to he punished and those who have done good and bad in equal measure can live in a place where they don't remember their lives and live in peace. He claimed the Underworld when he and seven siblings divided the world up, shouted until his voice was hoarse that he was best suited for the job, that no one else would survive in the darkness and misery that infects every inch of it, that only he could take the depths of the dead and darkness and shape it into something that's better. His pride, Hugh thinks as he stares out at the rivers - one fire red, the other clouded as though it's a dream, one crystal clear, another tinted red with blood, the fourth see through, and the final a large one that looks normal, as though it can belong to the world up high - is his downfall.   
  
But what he said is true. None of his siblings could have ruled, not without shattering or breaking the rules of death Thanatos would give them the moment they took the crown. They would have listened to the begging, the pleas of the dead, would have allowed the bad ones into the places meant for safety. They would have drowned in the despair that permeates the air, would have suffocated under the anguish that enters the lungs and refuses to leave. They would have bent to heartache, coughed in the desolation, died as their duty poisoned them from the mind out.   
  
Hugh may have pride, and it will be his downfall, one day, but it saved his siblings the torture of ruling the Underworld and for that he is grateful.   
  
There is a reason why the mortals warn against pride, tell others to be humble, scream that pride will kill them, in the end. Hugh's siblings pretend to be immortal, to be everlasting, and indeed they are, but -

But anything that can bleed can die. Their father is proof enough of that.   
  
Hugh sighs and waves his hand for the doors to open. He needs to judge the dead that has piled up, crying in the face of the fact that they died. The door groan open and two hundred souls pour in, hysterical men and women and children and screaming babes.   
  
Hugh straightens in his seat, calling up the form he uses when judging the dead. He's found, over the years, that people do not take children seriously, so he's taken to using the appearance of a large man with a crown flickering black flames upon his head - Hugh's actual crown - and a fire in his coal eyes.   
  
_ "Silence!"  _ He booms, and all the souls hush, terrified eyes watching as he reclines in his throne.   
  
His eyes look at them, not skipping a single one, and they all flinch. Children hide behind legs, the women avert their gazes, and the men twist their hands into their clothes.   
  
Hugh stands, his cloak dragging behind him, and stands in front of them, eyes finally landing on a child, thin cheeks and sunken eyes. Hugh's heart aches but he steels himself because this is what needs to be done. He takes the child's hand and leads him out if the crowd, the women crying out in alarm, and the poor boy looks frightened. Hugh leans down, his cloak covering the child, and taps his chest, barely even blinking as his life plays out in his mind. Orphaned at a young age, put to work by neighbor for food and a place to stay, never got enough food to survive. Died in his sleep after a hard day of work with his arms shaking from starvation. Hugh blinks and the life ends. The soul bites his lip and Hugh places a too large hand on his head.   
  
"You are to go to Elysium," he whispers, for this child has done little to no bad in his life, and the boy's eyes widen before he's turned into a wisp that disappears through the walls.

The crowd explodes, yells echoing in the room, and Hugh wants nothing more than to go roam. But he has a duty, a job, and he has to follow through with that he swore all those millenia ago.   
  
He takes a gurgling babe next, already knowing they would go to Elysium, and a moment later she, too, turns into a wisp. They shout at him even more, closing in on him, but Hugh closes his eyes, finding it hard to keep this form under this duress. Coming home from a party when a drunk nymph died by touching his crown by accident and the more turbulent mob of the dead he's had in the past few weeks - must be because of the amount of children in it - and his temper is about to snap.   
  
"What did you do to my child," demands a woman, face pale, but her lips are ruby red with the blood she likely died spitting up.   
  
Hugh draws himself up, a frown a knife's edge on his lips, and the woman shrinks back. "I sent her," he thunders, and suddenly the souls are tongue tied, "to the Plains of Elysium! And unless you wish for me to send you all to the Fields of Punishment, you shall sit and stay  _ quiet!" _ __  
  
They all sit, mouths shut, hands trembling with terror. Hugh sits upon his throne and waves for a man on the far left to be brought before him. He touches the man's heart, sighing heavily once the life stops. "To the Fields of Asphodel," he murmurs, and then the man's a wisp.   
  
"Next."   
  
How Hugh hoped, when he first took the crown and sat upon his throne, that it would become monotonous, judging the dead. How he  _ prayed, _ to the First Ones, that he will someday become immune.   
  
His prayers were never answered. Each time he judged a soul, he felt all of their emotions within, at the most, five seconds. Joy, despair, melancholy,  __ anything. Humans feel so strongly, feel so overwhelmingly, that sometimes Hugh gets confused about his own emotions for a moment or two.    
  
Sometimes he hits those who have no emotion at all and he feels drained beyond measure when his own return.

He always sends those ones to the Fields of Asphodel.   
  
The mother of the second soul comes up as the last one, and he's already so exhausted. He's fighting to keep his eyes open and keep his appearance the same. He reaches out with fingers pale like marble and touches her chest.   
  
Love. Breathtaking love for her child, her baby, the only thing left of her husband. Fear for herself and her child, when the sickness season hit her village. The pain, when she realized both of them contracted it. Sorrow as she watched her baby wither away and her relief when her own heart stopped.   
  
Hugh pulls his hand away, blinking away the utter emotion only a mother can give.   
  
"Your husband is in the Fields of Asphodel," he says, voice hoarse. "He won't remember you and you won't remember him. Neither of you will remember the child you had together."   
  
Her back straightens, tears shining in her eyes, but she nods once, firmly.   
  
"If my baby is taken care of, I will not care," she tells him, and Hugh already knows she is. He knows that she has been taken in by a long dead hero who wished for children but was killed before he could.   
  
He doesn't say any of it. The woman turns into a wisp and he's left alone, his body returning to the child he looks like.   
  
Hugh rubs at his eyes and slumps down in his seat, crown heavy on his head. He may be a god, but he knows all too well of death, has Thanatos at his call but never control, and those above in the heavens have forgotten just how inevitable death is.   
  
The Underworld is quiet and dark and whatever sound Hugh makes echoes by a million. He loves it, at times. Others, like now, he wants more noise, if only to remind himself there's more than eternal darkness. Here in his kingdom, there is only the dead. And the dead don't make a lot of noise.   
  
Sometimes, Hugh thinks he's dead himself, only an after image of a once god, name lost to time and who only exists to judge the dead.   
  
Hugh straightens his back. He's the best for the job, really.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If he wasn't a god, he would have died from stress centuries ago.
> 
> But - as time passes, the rumors of the spring god he saw so many years ago grow. Tetsu, he remembers, is his name, and he recalls he thought that he would better be suited for the water instead of spring.
> 
> "I heard he's strong, milord," says a spirit, bowing low. "I heard he's kind."
> 
> Hugh snorts, waving her away. Spring spirits are always kind - why would a god be any different?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoOOO

Decades pass and Hugh watches them go by, only leaving the Underworld when he needs to - he's had more dead tumble their way into the depths of his kingdom; after all, the greater the world population, the greater the population of the dead.   
  
He sees, with half lidded eyes, the sickness that takes, the wars that are fought, and with each hundredth death, his work triples.

If he wasn't a god, he would have died from stress centuries ago.   
  
But - as time passes, the rumors of the spring god he saw so many years ago grow. Tetsu, he remembers, is his name, and he recalls he thought that he would better be suited for the water instead of spring.   
  
"I heard he's strong, milord," says a spirit, bowing low. "I heard he's kind."   
  
Hugh snorts, waving her away. Spring spirits are always kind - why would a god be any different?   
  
"I heard he's simple minded," says a soul dismissively, flicking his wrist. "Takes life as it comes. I heard he took Lord Mahiru's philosophy and made it his."   
  
"I heard that he can't control his own power," says a nymph. "There's always flowers around him and the plants move towards him."   
  
Hugh waves her away, putting his chin in his hand and watches the River of Styx flow slowly to where Kuro threw their father's remains. How long has it been, since he went to the surface? A hundred, two?   
  
His lips twist down. His days here blur into one, a repeated day of judging souls amd managing his kingdom to keep it in order. He keeps track of time by the changing fashion of the souls that flock into his throne room, by the rumors that are passed to him, murmurs in vast quantity.   
  
Hugh doesn't quite remember when he grew this fascination for the spring god, but he isn't surprised. He's represents death, rotting corpses and collapsing homes, and the spring god represents life, rebirth and a seed growing into a tree. He wants to see the lack of control he remembers, wants to see the way he makes the ground beneath his feet bloom while it dies under Hugh's. He wants to see their natures fight one another.

He isn't like Lawless, who searches for a new sparring partner every time he gets bored, who searches for a fight. Hugh knows that much. He doesn't have time, for one. But even before the amount of dead picked up, Hugh didn't want to fight. He can fight, yes - he's the second oldest, right after Kuro, and the second most powerful of the gods - but he never wanted to. Hugh doesn't enjoy the thrill of battle. He knows, all too well, of what will happen when you get addicted to the adrenaline, to the excitement. When he was younger, he was raring to pick up his blade and  _ fight, _ but the years of walking in the shadows of the Underworld, of ruling the dead and learning just what war brings had given him wisdom.

He doesn't want to fight Tetsu. He merely wishes to see how their natures fight when they don't do anything but stand. Will the grass turn brown beneath his feet as they turn green? Will the new god shudder when Hugh's power reaches him, as cold as a glacier and crushing as a mountain?

What will happen?

Hugh's curiosity is a flaw, fitting in right next to his pride like a perfect puzzle piece. It pushes and pushes and tells him that he needs to know  _ everything. _ Anything and everything he can get his hands on, every little piece of knowledge he can know, he  _ must _ know. And his pride agrees - he simply must be the one with the answers; he's the king of the  _ dead, _ he should  _ know these things. _

Hugh sighs softly and makes preparations for being able to leave for a week, at most. He is, as always, a slave to his own desires.

 

\--

 

It takes a decade and a half for him to be able to leave the Underworld without anything falling to pieces, and by then his temper has worsened. Immortal he may be, when he had something to look forward, his patience takes a very serious hit.

He wants to leave. As much as he loves his kingdom, he hasn't left in nearly a two century. His siblings don't dare come here, and Mahiru would, but Kuro fears what will happen to him if he stays in the Underworld for an extended amount of time and so keeps him occupied. Mahiru is, after all, a creature of light and life and happiness; those don't last, here.

Still, it gets lonely. Lawless visits, sometimes, but Hugh presumes he is busy with his newest toy. Lily would as well, but he's most likely engaged with Misono and the children he's taken into his temples. Hugh isn't close with his other siblings. He's too serious, too childish, too much of everything, according to them.

Which is fair, considering that most of the time Hugh is thinking about how much work he's going to have when he gets home. But -

But the dead don't make good companions.

Hugh grits his teeth and picks up the pace, his child-sized legs taking twice the time it would anyone else to make the trip to the outside world.

Sagami rushes to meet him, face drawn tight under his hood. "Milord," he says, nearly rushing his words, and his knuckles are white on his oar. "We have more dead."

Hugh closes his eyes. "I'm leaving for seven days," he says carefully, measuring the words.

Sagami flaps his hands desperately, clearly anxious more than usual. "Milord, there are  _ hundreds." _

Hugh's eyes snap open.  _ "Hundreds? _ What the everloving  _ fuck _ is going on up there?"

Hugh doesn't curse, not often. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth. But in this circumstance, he think that it is worth it.

Sagami shrugs his shoulders helplessly. "I don't know," he says. "But they looked burnt."

Hugh groans, taking off his crown so he can run his hands through his hair.

"Another war," he says, tired, because humans never learn. "Most likely between two very populated city-states. It will pass, soon enough."

Sagami wrings his hands. "But, Milord," he says, stress making the lines around his eyes deepen. "There are so many."

"They're most likely burning the villages they come across, peaceful or not." Hugh shrugs, the black crown weighing like the sky in his hands. How he hates casual cruelness, how he hates how some never give a second thought to those not involved in the fighting except to harm. "It will pass."

"Milord-"

_ "It will pass," _ Hugh repeats, something heavy and sad in the angle of his lips, and Sagami's mouth clicks shut. "In the meantime, ferry them across the river as you always have. I will be back in a week's time. All will be well soon."

Sagami's shoulder's slump in resignation, but he nods all the same. Hugh smiles a bit grimly. "I will see you soon," he promises, and thinks of the sun, the crashing of the ocean on the shore, the giggles of nymphs in the trees. Then he's gone, the heat of Helios' eye shining down on his face instead of the weak fire of the Underworld.

He breathes in the sea spray, the air that isn't lifeless and weighing him down, strains his ears for the rustle of grass, for the chatter of sea spirits, and pulls the hood on, hiding his crown in the satchel he brought with him. He's warm again, warm instead of cold, and Hugh digs his toes into the sand beneath him. The Underworld has sand - it's black and glitters with broken clay and glass, daring anyone to get to the shore of the rivers - but it's nothing compared to the sand of the mortal realm.

He drops to his back, laying down onto the toasty sand with his cloak billowing behind him. The Underworld is chilly at best, freezing at worst, and he has to burrow under mountains of blankets just to get even the slightest of feeling in his fingers on the bad days. He spreads his limbs and sprawls, boneless, on the sand, and refuses to acknowledge the fact that Lawless would tease him endlessly if he saw him this way, like the five year old he looks like. His crown pokes into his hip, but he refuses to move it further away. Thanatos gave it to him, placed it upon his  as he knelt, eyes closed and head bowed, told him, as it shrunk to fit him, that it is his now, to never separate with it, for it is his connection to the Underworld, and without it Hugh would be without a kingdom, without subjects to rule.

Even then, the thought filled him with fear., and he had swore that he would never part with it. Thanatos had given him this little smile, sad and smug all at once, and had believed him.

Hugh thinks, now, that Thanatos had wanted that oath, had wanted to hear him promise to rule as long as he could. It would certainly be like death, to slip into someone's life unnoticed. Seagulls squawk overhead, circling as clouds float lazily by, and Hugh opens his eyes, staring up at the summer blue sky idly. He yawns, jaw cracking, and slips into a fitful sleep for the first time in decades. He will be safe, here, at the door of his sibling's domain, and it's the reassurance he needs to dream.

He soon learns that he is certainly not safe, although others will argue that point.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Hugh opens his eyes, it's to the crackling of a fire, the slide of fabric over his skin, and a quiet humming. Not to the cool light of the moon, the grainy feeling of sand under his feet, the poke of his crown in his hip.
> 
> Hugh shoots up, nearly falling out of the bed as he scrambles to find the crown, his connection to his kingdom, and a quiet voice makes him freeze. "If you're looking for your bag, it's by the fireplace. The tide got it wet."
> 
> He tilts his head, his eyes better suited towards the dark, and sees a man with blonde hair and lithe muscles leaning over a plank of wood, hands holding a knife as he steadily carves a intricate design into it. Hugh blinks at him. "Ah, thank you." He creeps over to the fireplace and snatches the bag, breathing a quiet sigh of relief when he feels the crown inside it.
> 
> "I'm guessing what's in it is important, huh," the man muses, frowning in concentration as he carefully carves a curve.
> 
> "Extremely," Hugh sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> longer chapter! this thing is officially 10,000 words long in my docs, so i decided to post the next chapter.

When Hugh opens his eyes, it's to the crackling of a fire, the slide of fabric over his skin, and a quiet humming. Not to the cool light of the moon, the grainy feeling of sand under his feet, the poke of his crown in his hip.

Hugh shoots up, nearly falling out of the bed as he scrambles to find the crown, his connection to his kingdom, and a quiet voice makes him freeze. "If you're looking for your bag, it's by the fireplace. The tide got it wet."   
  
He tilts his head, his eyes better suited towards the dark, and sees a man with blonde hair and lithe muscles leaning over a plank of wood, hands holding a knife as he steadily carves a intricate design into it. Hugh blinks at him. "Ah, thank you." He creeps over to the fireplace and snatches the bag, breathing a quiet sigh of relief when he feels the crown inside it.   
  
"I'm guessing what's in it is important, huh," the man muses, frowning in concentration as he carefully carves a curve.   
  
"Extremely," Hugh sighs, sitting down on the floor. "So you picked me up and took me to your home because?"   
  
The man looks up, looking faintly surprised. "The tide was coming in," he says. "It was up to your waist and it goes up even higher. I didn't want you to drown." He sets his knife down, blowing on the wood and gently wiping the wood shreds away. "Besides, you're the god people call Hades. I didn't think that it would be good for you to be swept away by the sea. What would happen to the dead then?"   
  
"Build up until the palace collapses and everything falls apart," Hugh answers automatically. Then he pauses. "Wait, how did you know I'm Hades?"   
  
"Oh." The man shifts. "I'm Tetsu, god of spring."   
  
Hugh goes still. "Ah."   
  
Tetsu holds out his hand awkwardly. "Hi. What's your name?"   
  
"Hugh," he replies, still staring. "But - thanks for taking me in. I have a week off."   
  
Tetsu blinks. "Oh?" A smile grows, small and fragile, but there. "Want me to show you around? No one's up and the crops a town over need some help anyways."   
  
Hugh nods mutely, hands clutching his bag, and Tetsu picks him up, placing him on his shoulders and walks out the door.  Flowers intertwine with his fingers as he talks idly with the god sitting on his shoulders, feet hitting his chest.

"People told me to stay away from you," he says thoughtfully, glancing at him.   
  
Hugh cringes. "They would likely be right to do so."   
  
Death and life are a give and take, yes, but they are also constantly in battle. For Tetsu to meet Hugh would be disastrous. In front of them, the grass withers away to nothing and behind them grass grows. A perfect dichotomy to the two sides of eternity.   
  
"Really?" Tetsu sounds surprised. "Why? You seem nice."   
  
Hugh laughs and pats Tetsu's hair, because, really, is that what a spring god should be saying? "I can be," he says, amused. "But I've done a lot of things that many disapprove of. That," he pauses, "and I have Thanatos at my beck and call, to an extent. For you, who represents life born anew after death, it could be disastrous for you to be near me."   
  
Tetsu blinks, face twisting in bewilderment. It seems he doesn't understand, although to Hugh it's obvious. "I don't understand, but - if you say so, then I guess I believe you."   
  
Hugh's heart sinks, biting his lip with too long teeth. His crown is cold in his bag, cold as winter, and he can feel the warmth in his fingers draining out of him. He doesn't know why, exactly,he wants Tetsu to think of him differently, but it seems he does.   
  
"But," Tetsu says, breaking into his thoughts, "my opinion of you is one where you're kind. I don't see you doing anything really bad. You seem too busy to do that." He tilts his head. "Mahiru always says that you might not be able to come to the parties, because of your work.”   
  
Hugh digs his fingers into the fabric of his bag. "Running an entire kingdom," he manages, throat closing up, "is hard."   
  
"I'd imagine," Tetsu agrees. "Oh, we're here."   
  
Hugh slips down and runs over to a tree, clambering up as the ground beneath turns brown and dead. The bark flakes away, the wood groaning, and Hugh grimaces.   
  
Tetsu walks up to the tree, placing a hand on the bark. The leaves turn green again, even as the branches go down. "What are you doing up there?"

Hugh tilts his head down, brow surprisingly light without his crown. He's gone centuries without taking it off, and it weighs heavy by his side.   
  
"I'm afraid that you'll be unable to help the crops if I am here," he calls down.   
  
Tetsu frowns. "Why?"   
  
Hugh shrugs. "I tend to make things rot."   
  
"Oh."   
  
A pause.   
  
"The crops can wait," Tetsu says decisively, nodding his head firmly. "You haven't been up here in decades." He reaches up his hands, smile soft and gentle and mot anything that should be directed towards Hugh.   
  
The crown pokes at him, as though reminding him of his commitment. He licks his lip, legs swinging idly as he thinks. Should he go down there?   
  
Yeah, he thinks, and drops. Tetsu catches him and swoops him onto his shoulder, already walking away from the village. Hugh reached into his bag and pulls out his crown, the black absorbing the sunlight as he stared at it. Without it, he's just Hugh, and he isn't the god of anything, not really. With it, he's king.   
  
Hugh places it carefully back into his bag, looping it over his shoulder and letting it thump against his hip. He feels bare without it, powerless despite the fact that he's very much not. He has hoards of power at his disposal, hands that can use any weapon and use it  _ effectively. _ Jeje might be the god of war, of blood spilt in the name of a cause only some believe in, but Hugh is the one who helped bring down their father, weakened him enough that he couldn't immediately kill Kuro. Hugh is the one who took the knife to their father's remains and cut him into pieces, throwing them into the darkest pit he could find, sure that they are free of his reign. Hugh is the one who willingly went against Kuro when he almost self destructed and brought him down. Hugh is the one who made the Underworld a home, who vowed to shape it with two child sized hands and a will that burned bright. Hugh is anything but powerless, hopeless. He did that before he took the crown. The crown - just added something  _ more. _

"Want to go pick flowers?"   
  
Tetsu's voice startles him out of his thoughts and Hugh stops gripping the fabric of his clothes. He lets out a slow breath. The past is past, and powerful he may be, he is bound to the Underworld with an oath and a crown.   
  
He smiles, a little bitter. He doesn't regret his decision; he brought it upon himself, after all. He had looked at the Underworld, in all it's black glory, in its torture and screams, and thought  _ I want that. _ He had thought, foolish in his pride, that he would be able to take it and mold it into something other than a hell hole. And he did - he made it into a safe haven for souls, a home for children who had a terrible life, a prison for those who did extraordinary wrong. But, when he first saw the Underworld, the only thing on his mind was  _ I want that. _ When they divided up the world, Lawless had wanted it, laughed like a hyena and said, "Give me the Underworld, I'll take care of it."   
  
Hugh had seen red, had shot to his feet, and shouted in his brother's face that the Underworld is  _ his.  _ He had already claimed it; it's  _ his. _   
  
Pride has and always will be a problem with Hugh. But he doesn't want to take back that moment, with his hands clenched into fists, an angry, desperate fire in his gut, the way he had punched Lawless in the face, his pride bucking and snarling in fury. He just - he just wishes others weren't so wary of him.   
  
"Hugh?" A finger nudges him. "You okay?"   
  
Hugh captures the finger in his hands, a smile coming onto his lips entirely without his consent. "I'm fine," he says softly, and Tetsu wiggles his finger.   
  
"Are you sure?" And Hugh closes his eyes; he's been lying to everyone for centuries and nobody has been able to tell he has been. And yet the god of spring has been able to do what no other being as been able to do - tell when he is telling a lie. Hugh was born able to tell false truths, born with a silver tongue that's never failed him. It's why he prefers to never tell lies if he can help it.

"I'm sure," he says, keeping his voice upbeat, and he can feel Tetsu's frown, can tell that he's not satisfied, and something rises in his throat, hysteria and terror and despair all in one. His lies are his best defense, his best way of showing a strong front to the world, to not show any weakness. He doesn't want his family to worry about him - his pride twists at the thought, a living, breathing monster of a beast at the thought because he's the second oldest, the second most powerful and he's been doing just  _ fine - _   
  
Without his lies, he's stripped away to just him, and that's frightening.   
  
Tetsu doesn't say anything else, lets him ride out the panic as they reach the flower fields, crouches down and gently sets him on the grass. Hugh sucks in a breath through his teeth even though he doesn't need it, shoulders shaking, and watches with blank eyes as Tetsu weaves a flower crown.   
  
Hugh's fingers twitch, curling into the tall tall grass around him, and blinks heavy eyelids as Tetsu makes a low noise of accomplishment and places the crown on Hugh's head without ceremony. It's too big, sliding down until it's tilted, and Hugh looks at it. Yellow and bright blue invade his vision, and when he puts his gaze back on the spring god before him, Tetsu is smiling, just a bit.   
  
"I thought you'd seen enough black," he says, and more flowers crop up around him. "Want to make me one?"   
  
Hugh touches the flowers, surprised when they don't wilt. He blinks and Tetsu gently picks ten, guiding his hands to make one with his face twisted in concentration as the grass starts to turn brown then a bright green again.   
  
_ Oh, _ Hugh realizes, tying two stems together.  _ He's making it so it doesn't die. _   
  
He bites his lip, eyes dropping to his lap. "You don't have to do that," he says, stilted and awkward. "It's okay if they die."

Tetsu scoffs, eyes narrowing as a stem snaps. "You can't do much if everything dies," he says simply, and Hugh's hit with how much he wants to keep Tetsu with him. It's like a punch to the gut, a startled epiphany. He wants Tetsu at his side because he knows his tells, knows the twisted, convoluted way he thinks, and he's so damn kind.   
  
Is this what Lily feels like with Misono? Kuro with Mahiru?   
  
Hugh - he rather likes it. He likes this feeling. He reaches out with one hand and takes the flower crown, picking flowers of random color and slowly, with many mistakes, begins finishing the flower crown, making it big enough that he's  _ sure _ it'll fit onto Tetsu's head. Tetsu merely blinks at him, settling in front of him and resting on hand on the ground, willing it back to life with nary a thought.   
  
"Hey," he says, halting and uncertain. "Do you - want to meet again?"   
  
Tetsu smiles, very calm and oh so understanding that Hugh's heart seizes in his chest. "Okay," he says, and for the first time Hugh can see how this god before him is a spring god because his smile is as bright as the sun and gentle as a breeze and his eyes the color of the sky.   
  
"Fantastic!" Hugh cheers, and doesn't even try to not let a foolish grin on his face, his stupid teeth jabbing into his bottom lip like always. Tetsu's faint smile shifts into concern as golden ichor drips down Hugh's chin, landing on his pale hands. Hugh waves him away, jumping to his feet and placing the crown on his head, already licking the of ichor away. "I hereby declare you the co-ruler of the Underworld and King of Spring," he giggles, and Tetsu laughs quietly, reaching out to ruffle Hugh's hair.   
  
"You're the best, Hugh," he says, and he sounds impossibly fond for someone who met him just today. "I'd be honored to be your co-ruler. And you can be mine."   
  
Hugh's heart beats rabbit fast, and he feels as though the Fates just finished creating another chapter of his life, an important one.

_ Perhaps, _ he thinks, and he has to tread carefully now with his thoughts, but what if -  _ this is destiny. _   
  
"You'd better be honored to be my co-ruler!" He laughs, and it's not even a little forced. "I'm the most important one there is!"   
  
Tetsu's eyes turn tender and he tilts his head with a quiet laugh. "I know," he says. "Without you, the world would be overrun with ghosts and the souls would have nowhere to go." He hesitates before barrelling forward. "And I don't think people tell you that enough. They fear you and talk about you but nobody really acknowledges how important you are. So. I am. Yeah."   
  
Hugh gapes, cheeks turning a light pink as Tetsu fidgets with the flowers popping out of the ground by his feet. "I - thank you." He sits down, crossing his legs and grinning. "Why don't you show me some more tricks?"   
  
Tetsu's face lights up. "Sure!" And Hugh thinks he'll do anything to keep that smile on Tetsu's face.   



	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three days pass and every day Hugh gets more and more attached to this strange little god who calls him smart and dries him off and makes him food.

Three days pass and every day Hugh gets more and more attached to this strange little god who calls him smart and dries him off and makes him food. He knows Tetsu's favorite animals - squirrels - and he knows that there isn't really a lot he dislikes. He knows that he has terrible memory and finds things needlessly complicated and he doesn't have a mind for strategy. He knows that he loves hot water and doesn't mind death, thinking it's just another part of life. He knows that he looks up to Mahiru, even calls him Big Brother. He knows that Misono confuses him, that his powers aren't irritating to him. He knows that he wants to run a business where people can relax in hot water. He knows that he doesn't care if people fight as long as it's for a good reason. He knows that he likes Hugh.

And Hugh - Hugh fits into this little life in a small wooden hut by the sea. Hugh slots into it as though he was made for it, for waking up each morning with Tetsu around him as though to protect him from the world like he would a child, for leaving when the sun is high and not returning until dark, laughing and stumbling into bed for sleep, for not wearing any other crown than one made by tanned hands and colorful flowers. And he finds, as another day ends and Tetsu dries his hair by the sea with the sun setting upon the horizon and Tetsu singing into the peaceful air, that he doesn't want this to end.   
  
He leans into Tetsu's chest, closing his eyes against the inevitable timing of his return, and says, a tad absently, "Would you ever like to go to the Underworld one day?"   
  
Tetsu doesn't even hesitate in answering. "Yes," he says, firm, and runs his fingers through Hugh's hair to help get rid of the tangles. It's relaxing.   
  
"Really?" Hugh doesn't mean to sound doubtful, really, but even Lawless, who adores anything misery filled, avoids Hugh's kingdom above Tartarus.   
  
Tetsu hums, setting his chin on top of Hugh's head and looking at the sunset with lazy eyes. "Why wouldn't I want to? It's your home."   
  
Tetsu says it so  _ easily, _ as though it's natural to want to visit the Underworld, especially when a nature god or spirit, that Hugh barks out a laugh. It's rough and biting, but it's a laugh all the same. Tetsu's hands tighten briefly in worry, a nonverbal  _ are you okay, _ and Hugh twitches his fingers to show he's okay. The hands loosen.   
  
"It's just - no one wants to come," he says, matter-of-factly. "So no one really comes.”   
  
"Well," Tetsu replies, just as matter-of-factly,  _ "I _ want to come visit you."   
  
Hugh hides his smile behind his sleeve. His black crown is with him as always, but the one he's wearing is the purple and blue one Tetsu made him today.   
  
He's happy. Content, most of all. Tetsu makes him happy.

He's just about to ask if they should head back when a voice calls out, "Tetsu? Where are you? You haven't come to help with the forest-" And a nymph walks out of the trees, long brown hair and brown skin and eyes the color of fresh leaves. She stops dead at the sight of Hugh, face paling, and Hugh's heart sinks right down to his feet. "Tetsu, get away from him!"   
  
Tetsu frowns at her, arms tensing around Hugh, and says, rather frostily, "Why are you being mean?"   
  
She gasps, eyeing Hugh warily, but she answers all the same. "Because he bring  _ death _ with him wherever he goes," she spits, hackles raised, and Hugh hides the sting of pain that causes. After days spent with Tetsu, he may have forgotten just how much everything else hates him. He clearly doesn't hide it good enough, because Tetsu stands, holding him close to his chest and scowling crossly. "That does not mean that he should be left out," he says, and it's  _ mean, _ most of all, and Hugh doesn't like it. He's never wanted Tetsu to get angry over him, although his pride preens at the thought that Tetsu considers him important enough to get upset over.   
  
"It's fine," he says, taking off his flower crown and putting on his real one. "I'll just leave."   
  
She flinches at the sight of his crown, lips pursing with fury. "You should,  _ murderer,"  _ she snarls, and Hugh flinches at that as he vanishes from Tetsu's hold.   
  
"I'm not a murderer," he says, dangerously calm, and pictures empty hallways, low light, cries of the dead. A hand grasps his shoulder and then he's gone, the scream of nymph ringing in his ears.   
  
When he opens his eyes, Sagami is in front of him, knuckles white with agitation. "The dead have been piling up," he says, a lot more snappishly than he probably intended it to be, and Hugh draws himself up, heart already heavy.   
  
"I'll be there soon," he says grimly, and Sagami nods, frazzled, but then he blinks.   
  
"Uh, Milord," he says weakly. "It seems you've brought a guest along."   
  
"A guest?" Hugh turns and -

_ "Tetsu?" _   
  
Tetsu stops blinking in curiosity and waves. Hugh rubs at his eyes. This day has suddenly gotten a lot harder and he should be going to bed, not staying up.   
  
"Tetsu," he says, "you wanted to see how I judge the souls, right?"   
  
Tetsu nods. "Yes."   
  
"Then follow along," Hugh sighs, marching forward.   
  
"Isn't that the spring god," Sagami hisses.   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Why is he with you?"   
  
"I don't know." Hugh stops, turning to click his tongue at Tetsu. "Why are you with me?"   
  
Tetsu shrugs and picks him up with the ease of practice, placing him on his shoulders. "You looked upset," he says, as though it's that simple, and maybe it is, for him. "I was going to take you home so we can eat and ignore her, but then we came here."   
  
Hugh tugs on Tetsu's hair thoughtfully, frowning. He has  _ work _ to do, important work, but he doesn't want to leave Tetsu. He won't admit it to anyone, but he's afraid that if he looks away, Tetsu will disappear, that the last few days were but a dream. "I suppose," he says slowly, "you could see the way I judge souls. You wanted to see it, right?"   
  
Tetsu nods, crossing his arms without a wince about the grip on his hair "I did," he says firmly. "I heard it's interesting."   
  
Hugh barks a laugh, feet kicking his companion's chest. "It loses its luster after a bit," he says, dry and without a bit of humor.   
  
Tetsu shrugs. "I just want to see it," he says, voice even, and Hugh groans good naturally.   
  
"Alright, alright!" He flings his hands into the air. "You win. Come see me judge people's souls."   
  
Tetsu smiles, a tad smug, and starts to walk. "Where to?"

 

"Take a right," Hugh says, and it's - odd. Having someone by his side and actually wanting to be here. Sagami is too nervous, too quick to cower, and he's halfway afraid of Hugh like everyone else. Tetsu merely takes a right as though he doesn't have his complete opposite on him, and then they're at two large doors, made of stone and with a large dying tree carved into it. Hugh takes a deep breath, draws himself up, and grows. He grows until he's old and bearded and with power crackling in his hands and it feels wrong - too big, too tight, not right - but it's his defense, his way of showing authority to the new souls, his way of saying  _ I am your king. _   
  
No one ever listens to a boy king. Hugh knows this from intimate experience, from when he first took the throne and thought that they would respect him because he judged their souls, he hoards those bright little dots and helps mend those who are cracked andth.  broken. He had thought, once, that they would  _ listen. _ How foolish. How naive.   
  
Hugh smiles. It's an angry thing, one filled with broken glass and the fire of the trod upon, and he sees Tetsu flinch at it as he throws open the door. Inside, the souls immediately throw themselves to the floor, foreheads resting on the stone as they tremble in fear. Hugh walks through them, Tetsu following behind, and they part for him like the sea. He sits on his throne, eyes halfway closed as Tetsu gingerly sets himself on the stone stairs at his feet.   
  
"You are all dead," Hugh says, voice booming, and they all jump. "I am here to judge your souls."   
  
"Lord Hades," says a woman with creaking joints and thin white hair, "is my husband here?"   
  
Hugh blinks at her, and, yes, he recognizes her. The wife of a merchant, dearly loved. The merchant died five years ago. "He is," Hugh says, lifting his chin. "He was a good man."   
  
Her relieved smile is fragile. "Thank you," she whispers.

"Would you like to see him again?" Hugh can't help but ask. He still remembers the love born from strife, two people finding each other during a war, united as a storm raged at their feet. He still remembers her, beautiful with long brown hair and a kind smile as she leaned in a kissed the merchant's cheek. He still remembers her, growing old and still as gorgeous as the merchant first met her. He still her laughs on the road, clothes covered with dust and jokes flying from her lips. He still remembers her.   
  
"I would love to, my lord," she replies, and her eyes are warm and grateful as she steps forward. Hugh stands to meet her in the middle, touching her cheek tenderly the same way the merchant would. Her breath catches. "Does he still know me?"   
  
"Absolutely," Hugh swears, and lays a hand on her heart. It only takes a moment, seeing her life, but it's filled with love. "To Elysium." She collapses in on herself, glowing like a star, and then Hugh's left alone with the dead staring at him and the spring god watching him closely.

A little boy breaks through the crowd, blank eyes staring up at him. "Where did she go," he asks, and the way he screws his face up reminds Hugh of Tetsu.   
  
"I sent her to Elysium," Hugh says, crouching in front of him. "She's with her husband now."   
  
The boy's face brightens. "Can I go there?"   
  
Hugh laughs, putting his hand on the child's heart and stiffens as the memories go through him. But none of them deserve Asphodel. "It appears that you can." With that, the boy vanishes into the blue sphere souls are at their core.   
  
The crowd shifts, unsettled but unwilling to come forward. "I assume you have questions," Hugh sighs, and a murmur runs through them.   
  
"What did you do," asks a voice Hugh knows all too well; clear as lake and as calm as an undisturbed pond. "When you touch their chest, what happens?"

No one's asked that before. It's forever  _ what will happen if I get sent to Asphodel _ or  _ will my child be safe from my crimes? _ Perfectly valid questions, of course, but it gets - tiresome so answer time and time again.   
  
But  _ this - _   
  
Hugh smiles and his fangs glint in the light. "Tetsu," he says, a tad giddy, "that is the best question ever asked."   
  
Tetsu tilts his head but hums in acceptance. "Thank you."   
  
"You're welcome," Hugh says without missing a beat, and twists around to grab Tetsu by the wrist and drag him forward. The dead ask each other who he is, the stories never said anything about a co-ruler, why is he flushed red and not pale like Hades?   
  
Hugh ignores them, putting his hand on Tetsu's chest. "Do you know the saying 'life flashing before your eyes?" he asks, and Tetsu nods. "Good. That comes from me. I do this -" he pushes slightly - "and I see their whole lives with the emotions. They only see snippets. That's how I tell who will go where. They can't hide anything from me. Thoughts, feelings, it doesn't matter. I see it all."   
  
A man in the back flinches, face suddenly paling even more. Hugh flicks a finger towards him, and he reluctantly comes forward, shaking minutely. Only the guilty flinch like that. "Watch," he tells Tetsu, and places his palm on the man's chest. Only a second - and Hugh's disgusted. By the look on the man's face, he knows it.

"To the Fields of Punishment," he snarls, and then the soul is gone. The crowd backs away, cowering in the face of his fury, and Hugh breathes through it, flexing his fingers to get rid of the feeling of flesh beneath his fingers, the begging of women, the red staining his arms. He grits his teeth, closing his eyes and wants to go lay down. He can't, though, because there is hundreds of souls ready to be judged and he's been gone for  _ days. _ He can't afford to relax, let alone design a special pit of a hell for men like that. Power crackles at his fingers, dark and deadly and beautiful, and Hugh sinks his fangs into his lip, strangling the urge to collapse on the stone bed below him ruthlessly.   
  
Hands grab his elbows and pull him into a chest, and suddenly all he can smell is fresh strawberries and flowers. "Calm down," Tetsu rumbles, and the position is so reminiscent of the past few days that Hugh nearly smiles. "You aren't him, he isn't you. You are you and you didn't do whatever he did."   
  
Hugh laughs, just a little. His logic is so simple, so easy to follow, and Hugh can't help but grin. Hugh's taller than Tetsu by at least a head, so he's bending down, Tetsu's arms wrapped around his shoulders, and it's a breath of air compared to the stiflingly dead air in the Underworld. "I experience everything," Hugh says, and it's a bit weak. "Every single emotion . Glee, sadness, anger - everything."   
  
His arms tighten. "You are you," Tetsu says, just as sure as before, just as certain, and Hugh snorts, because at the end of the day, after hours upon hours of judging souls, he feels like he's fractured into a million different personalities. "You like the rain and love the sun and have a crown made of black. You like to make flower crowns and hate the fact that you kill plants near you. You don't like that people are afraid of you and have fangs that are too big for your mouth. You-"

"Okay, okay," Hugh laughs, leaning back. "Don't give away all my secrets."   
  
Tetsu gives him a look. _ "You," _ he continues, relentless, "like calligraphy, same as me, and are protective enough that you could take on Kuro and  _ maybe _ win. You-"   
  
Hugh clamps a hand over his mouth, chuckling nervously. "I get it. You know me. I'm me, not anyone else."   
  
Tetsu crosses his arms smugly, nodding with a hint of a smirk on his lips. Hugh shoves him playfully and turns to wade into the crowd, dismissing all the souls within a few minutes. The doors swing open and another couple hundred souls stumble in, confused and upset, and Hugh rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. He wants to show Tetsu around, after all, and he can't do that if there's backlog.   
  
Judging souls is always emotionally taxing, though, so when he finishes, hours later, he's ready to drop and  _ starving. _ He shrinks back down into the form that natural to him, the way he was born and forever will stay, and Tetsu picks him up, placing him on his shoulder.

“Tired?" Tetsu asks, and Hugh slumps over, sighing deeply.   
  
"Extremely," he says, rubbing at his eyes. "And I'm hungry." They never did get to eat that bird a villager gave them, which is a shame considering he was really looking forward to eating it.   
  
Tetsu hums softly, flowers sprouting beneath his feet one moment and dying the next. "I can make us something," he says, thoughtful. "Is there anything I can use?" A reasonable idea, especially considering Tetsu is a wonderful cook and Hugh will eat anything he sets in front of him.

"Maybe some pomegranates," Hugh says, the low light of the torches casting shadow across his face. "Those are considered my fruit, so they're able to stay alive down here. And I have some ambrosia and nectar. Mortals sacrifice animals to me, too, so I have meat." He rests a hand against the side of Tetsu's head, the hair soft beneath his fingers, and half closes his eyes as he yawns. "You'll have to try to grow stuff if you want anything more."   
  
Which will be close to impossible, Hugh knows. The soil in the Underworld is not like the soil in the living world, or even in the shining heavens of Olympus. It's dry and dusty and can hardly manage to support a living plant. Only dying things can thrive here, in the land of darkness and terror. Only the rejected things live here.   
  
"I can make a meal with that," Tetsu says, and there's a quiet confidence lurking in his tone, a wordless reassurance that Hugh doesn't have to tend to his every need. Hugh smiles sleepily, breathing in the scent of pine and apples. Tetsu smells different every day, and Hugh wonders if tomorrow he'll smell like sunlight and fire burning. Hugh kind of hopes it will.

“Okay,” he says, and quietly thinks that Tetsu being here wouldn’t be so bad, if everyday is filled with quiet companionship, soft laughter, and absolute trust. “You just can’t eat anything. You can eat the ambrosia and nectar, but not anything else. You’ll get stuck down here, and nobody wants that.”

Tetsu shrugs at that, raising the shoulder not holding Hugh. “You don’t know that.”

It’s not a denial that he doesn’t want to stay here, but Hugh hadn’t expected that. No one wants to stay in the Underworld for eternity, not even him, and he adores his kingdom with everything he has. He bears the burdens that he doesn’t get thanked for because he  _ loves _ this place. But even he wants to escape this never ending pit of death and darkness sometimes.

“No, I do,” he says instead of what he thinks. “I’ve had enough spirits coming to be asking to be sent back. Nobody wants to stay.”

Tetsu mumbles something under his breath, but Hugh doesn’t ask what he said. Sometimes it’s merely thoughts, sometimes not. Either way, it’s not any of his business.

“Anyway,” he says with forced cheer, “what are you planning to make?”

“Maybe a platter,” Tetsu says, louder than a moment before, and reaches up to run a hand through his hair. “Pomegranates go well with beef and strawberries. I could make a steak or something like that with a sauce made from pomegranates.”

“That sounds  _ wonderful,”  _ Hugh says, smiling brightly. “It’s been forever since I had a meal that includes pomegranates.”

Tetsu laughs softly, heading into the kitchen. “Then I guess I’ll have to make this the best meal, huh?”

“That you must!” Hugh declares teasingly, leaping from Tetsu’s shoulder and onto a counter. He lands with hardly a sound, watching as Tetsu bustles around, picking out ingredients. “Let me taste test,” he says absently, picking up a stray pomegranate and playing with it. The skin is firm and the color not yet purple. This one has a few more months left to ripen. He tucks it into his cloak. He may want a snack in a few months, and, low and behold, it will be there.

By that time, Tetsu will be gone. He tries not to think of that.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good morning,” Tetsu replies, quiet, and flips over a piece of meat. “Sleep well?”
> 
> “Dreadfully,” Hugh says. “No one really sleeps well in the Underworld.”

The next day, Tetsu meets him in the kitchen, cooking already when Hugh stumbles through the door, his robes rumpled. He squints at the spring god in his kitchen, yawning. “Hello,” he says with sleep heavy eyes.

“Good morning,” Tetsu replies, quiet, and flips over a piece of meat. “Sleep well?”

“Dreadfully,” Hugh says. “No one really sleeps well in the Underworld.”

Tetsu falls silent, turning to chop up some pomegranates. “Oh.” The sound of the knife slicing through the fruit fills the room, Hugh still trying unsuccessfully to wake up. “I want to walk around this place today.”

_ That  _ wakes the god of the dead up. “I -  _ what?”  _ He gapes at Tetsu, eyes blown wide. “Tetsu, nobody just - walks around the Underworld. Nobody  _ wants  _ to.”

“I do,” Tetsu says firmly, wiping off the knife. “I want to see what you rule.”

Hugh sighs, waves a hand. “Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Tetsu laughs. “You’re coming with me.

“I’m sorry, I’m what,” Hugh says flatly. “I have work to do! The backlog is horrible, I can’t just -”

“You can and will,” Tetsu counters, using nothing but blind stubbornness and will. Hugh looks him in the eyes and sees that he  _ will  _ do whatever it takes to get Hugh out of the castle.

Hugh rubs at his forehead. “Okay, okay. You win.”

Tetsu beams, giving him a plate of food. “Now eat up. We have a big day ahead of us.”

Hugh gives him an exhausted smile but picks up his fork nonetheless. He likes having someone here.

 

\--

 

Weeks pass. Tetsu is a light in the darkness, a being of pure life, and the dead automatically lean towards him, wanting a taste of it. Tetsu, being Tetsu, smiles at them and shares it indiscriminately. Every night, he watches Hugh eat his food with a plate of ambrosia beside him that he barely touches. Hugh makes a throne next to him, made of the most gorgeous emerald and sapphires he could find. Tetsu sits upon it, the throne of flowers Hugh made him upon his head, and he watches as Hugh judges the dead with the cool gaze he has.

Eventually, Hugh comes to know more about Tetsu.

The spring god loves calligraphy, finds it beautiful, and wants to be able to do it as well. He loves the water, loves the rain, and finds it cruel how people treat Hugh. He’s not bothered by much, doesn’t get angry often.

His smiles are the sunshine after a long day, his whispers are the soft patter of rain. His touch is flowers against skin, and he smells like the breeze.

Hugh watches as he brings pure happiness into his realm, and stays, content with Tetsu by his side as he judges the dead, and rumors spread. Of the god of the dead and his wife, lovers intertwined by deceit and lies, of abduction and kisses.

“I hear she’s beautiful,” a ghost whispers. “I hear she has warm eyes and a kind smile. Such a shame.”

“I hear she’s chained to him,” another murmurs. “I hear she’s forced into the throne that he made next to him.”

“Maybe,” interrupts a third, “she loves him in return.”

Hugh always wrinkles his nose when he hears those. He doesn’t love Tetsu; not like that. He adores him, yes, but not in the way that Kuro does Mahiru, Hyde does Licht. He loves him the way one would a sibling, a friend, and there is no reason for him to wish more when it is more than enough.

They walk, on the days when the numbers of the dead are low. Hugh sits upon Tetsu’s shoulders and points out things Tetsu hadn’t noticed before, laughing loudly when Tetsu makes an excited noise. Tetsu makes food every night, extravagant meals one day, then simple ones the next. Hugh loves them all, of course. Tetsu is an excellent cook, even more so when he’s cooking for someone else, and Hugh is happy that he is that person.

But - all good things must come to an end, and their days spent together are interrupted by hundreds of dead flooding the gates. Sagami nearly tears his hair out, and Hugh doesn’t leave his throne for days, judging and judging. He tells Tetsu he’s free to leave, but he only does so when he thinks that Hugh should eat or drink something.

Hugh doesn’t know what he did to deserve this god.

After a stretch of five days judging, Hugh collapses in their shared bed, staring up at the ceiling. Tetsu had suggested they sleep in the same bed after discovering that Hugh often had sleep problems; he said that sleeping with someone helps, and Hugh had no reason to object. It does help anyhow, so.

“You okay?” Tetsu asks, sitting cross legged on the blankets. Hugh groans, turning so his face is buried in a pillow. “I’m taking that as a no.”

“So many lives,” Hugh says, and it’s spit out. “So  _ many.  _ And they all died of the same cause. The Mother is slacking.”

“Her name is Freyja,” Tetsu corrects, and Hugh pauses, looks over his shoulder at him.

“She finally chose a name?” he asks, and Tetsu nods. Hugh scowls, sitting up.  _ “Ugh.  _ She never tells me anything.”

“Well,” Tetsu points out diplomatically, “you were down here for at least a century. It’s not like she could tell you. Oh!” He perks up. “She’s friends with the new goddess of invention. Tinker, I think?”

“Oh, her.” Hugh makes a noise of understanding. “Yeah, I always thought they would make good friends.”   


“I thought so too.”

A comfortable silence falls upon them before Hugh yawns, curling up in Tetsu’s lap. He’s so  _ tired,  _ and he really wants to sleep for the next five years if he could. Tetsu pets his hair, humming softly, and his nails scratch at his head. Hugh’s eyes drift shut, and just as he’s about to go to sleep, someone bangs on his door.

Hugh cracks open an eye and hisses a curse. “Mother _ fucker. _ Just as I was about to go to sleep.”

Tetsu looks faintly apologetic, even though it wasn’t his fault in the first place. Hugh pats his knee and slips off the bed, fixing his appearance with a thought as he goes to open the doors. Lawless is on the other side, and he raises an eyebrow at the bags under Hugh’s eyes.

“Trying to copy our big brother, huh?” he leers, sticking his head inside. Hugh only sighs, stepping back and letting him in. “So, where’s that little spring god I hear you kidnapped?”

“What do you want, Lawless?”

Lawless laughs, the grin on his face sharp. “Freyja is not happy that you look her prodigy,” he sings, balancing on one foot. Hugh feels a headache begin, and hangs his head, rubbing at his temples gently.

“I’m not keeping him here,” he says carefully. “I was coming back here and he hitched a ride. He can leave any time he wants to; I even encouraged it the first few weeks. But he’s...stubborn.” Hugh smiles despite himself and the situation he’s in. “He insisted he stay, and I had no reason to refuse him. It gets rather lonely down here.”

Lawless stretches his arms high above his head. “Nobody can leave the underworld without your permission.” His lips quirk up. “Do you really expect me to believe that?

Hugh scowls at him. He is of a higher power than Lawless; he can and will kick his ass if he starts something. “This realm responds to my commands,” he says sharply. “And if I say that Tetsu is allowed to leave, he  _ will be able to leave.” _ The power lurking in his crown explodes, sinks into the earth, and Lawless stumbles underneath the weight of it. “So don’t you  _ dare  _ try to tell me that I would keep him here against his will.

Lawless wheezes, sinks to his knees. “I get it, I get it! Don’t insult your friendship!”

Hugh sniffs derisively. “Anything else you need to add?”

Lawless bounces back on his feet. “Yes, actually. Freyja says that if you don’t give Tetsu back, she’ll leave the mortals to their own devices. And since that will send Mahiru into a tizzy, Kuro will get involved, and it’s really better that you return him.”

Hugh snorts, then ushers him out of his home.

He closes the door behind him, taking the pomegranate out of his robe. It’s ripe, now. If Tetsu eats the seeds he’ll be forced to stay here. He shakes his head, puts it away. He needs to lock up the rest of his pomegranates. He doesn’t want Tetsu to be made to stay. He doesn’t want that as a friend and just as a person.

Making someone stay where they don’t want to be - it’s despicable. Hugh may be the god of the dead, but he would never do that.

He still doesn’t want Tetsu to leave, though.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know that you can leave if you wanted to, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and it's finished.

“You know that you can leave if you wanted to, right?” Hugh says one day, rolling the pomegranate beneath his palm on the table as Tetsu prepares a meal.

“Yes. But I don’t want to,” the spring god replies without looking away from his cooking.

“Why?”

Tetsu laughs, sends him a smile over his shoulder. “Because you were lonely,” he says lightly. “And you’re my friend. I don’t want you to be lonely.”

Hugh turns red and buries his face in his hands, the pomegranate almost rolling off the table. Tetsu catches it, places it back on the table, and pats his head.

“You’re too nice, Tetsu,” Hugh says, voice muffled. Tetsu shrugs.

“I don’t think I am. I’m just your friend. And friends don’t let other friends be upset.” Tetsu shrugs, setting a plate down in front of him. “Why wouldn’t I stay? Besides, this place is cool. I tried growing stuff, and the tree came out twisted and black.”

Hugh’s heart aches. He knows just how much Tetsu loves gardening. “I’m sorry -”

“No, don’t be.” Tetsu waves a hand. “It was actually pretty awesome! The fruits were ripe as soon as they grew, and they tasted like nothing else I’ve seen before. The flowers are all red and have stones in the middle - some kind of rubies, maybe - but I think I can get a more variety of colors if I keep trying.”

Hugh stares at him, something tightening in his chest. “You - really like it here?” he asks, voice trembling. If he does, then -

“Well, yeah.” Tetsu shrugs, brushing aside the clips in his hair. They’re made of gems, of a blue stone with a glossy finish on top of it naturally, and Tetsu adores them, wears them everyday. “I like it here, and I like you. Why wouldn’t I stay?”

Nobody has ever wanted to stay here before besides Hugh. Nobody has ever seen the beauty here. Sagami came into existence here, and even he finds it dreary. Hugh finds it gorgeous, and it seems that Tetsu does as well.

He smiles, ignoring the way his heart swells, and takes a bite of the food Tetsu prepared for him. 

 

\--

 

“You can’t keep him here.”

“I know,” Hugh says, weary after this conversation happening again an again. “And I’m not.”

Lawless looks doubtful but leaves anyway. Hugh takes out the pomegranate and debates eating it, deciding against it. Later, he thinks, and doesn’t know when later will come.

 

\--

 

Eventually, Kuro comes down.

“Hugh,” he says tiredly. ”You have to let him return to the surface.”

“I know,” Hugh says. Tetsu is becoming more pale by the day, more sluggish. He needs to be in the sun, but Hugh doesn’t want to let go. Not yet. “Just - a little more time.”

Kuro waves a hand. “A month,” he warns. “I will give you a month.”

A month to enjoy Tetsu’s jokes, his bluntness. A month to laugh at his humor, to sit in a throne with him beside him. A month of Tetsu growing plants in a place where plants cannot grow.

A month, Hugh thinks with something sinking in his stomach, is not nearly enough.

 

\--

 

The month passes, and, one day, the pomegranate disappears. Hugh searches high and low for it, and then -

Then he passes Tetsu sitting on their bed, three seeds in his hand and a cracked pomegranate in the other. Hugh lunges forward, a shout already escaping his lips, and Tetsu swallows them as soon as he sees him.

Hugh lands on the floor, staring up at him. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to leave,” Tetsu says simply, and helps him up with a shaking arm.

Hugh clings to him and cries. Tetsu, perfect, wonderful Tetsu is now chained to the Underworld like Hugh is.

Both times, it was of their own choice. Both times, they were unaware of the consequences. Only this time, Hugh couldn’t have stopped it if he was a moment faster.

He finds that he’s glad he wasn’t.

 

\--

 

Things settle back down, eventually. Freyja calms down, and Kuro looks proud. Lawless still gives him looks from time to time, but Tetsu is happy, and that’s the only thing of importance, really. The mortals make up myths, about how Hades stole Persephone away against her will, dragged her down to the depths of the Underworld and forced her to be his bride. They say that Persephone is beautiful, that she is cold when she is with her husband and warm with her mother. They say that she has long black hair and brown eyes the color of rich dirt. They say that her skin is smooth, that she wears green. They say she has servants of nymphs.

They say that she hates her husband. They say that she despises him for tricking her, for making her stay in this horrid place.

Mortals say a lot of things, most of which is complete nonsense. Hugh doesn’t even know where they get these ideas. Someone must be a very talented story creator.

Centuries after the incident happened, Hugh sits back in his throne, Tetsu beside him and crown heavy on his head, and waves for the next crowd of the dead to be brought in. This life is good, he decides and smiles faintly as his form shimmers then turns into his true one.

Children flood in, and Hugh mixes among them, sending them away with little more than a tap. He meets Tetsu’s eyes in the crowd, and smiles. Tetsu smiles back as a soul with his throat slashed clamors onto his lap. Yeah, this is good, Hugh thinks, and sends another soul to  Elysium. He loves that Tetsu is here, even though he has to leave for half a year. But that’s also half a year they can spend together, so it evens out.

Those six months are the loneliest of Hugh’s year, but -

At least Tetsu is here at all. He holds onto that with everything he has

It all worked out, in the end. He knows that the mortals with twist the tale, will turn him into the bad guy, make him the unsympathetic villain, but he doesn’t care. He knows what happened, and so does Tetsu. And that’s all that matters.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always loved and brighten up my day and are saved in my Gmail.
> 
> Also! Here's my [Tumblr.](http://nikescaret.tumblr.com) Come visit and chat with me if you want
> 
> (My discord is NikeScarlet#8096 if you wish to talk to me there)


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